Kristian Saucier, a former U.S. Navy sailor, is currently behind bars for mishandling classified information and is looking to President-elect Trump for a pardon. Saucier, who pleaded guilty to charges over the summer, cited former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of information as a means to lessen his punishment. His argument that his punishment was overly harsh because prosecutors were on edge with the Clinton private server scandal did not work, and now he is asking the President-elect for help.
Saucier claimed that he received a harsh sentence for the crime because federal prosecutors and investigators were hypersensitive to the controversy surrounding the mishandling of information by Clinton while she used a private server to conduct government business.
“While my conduct in taking the six photos was admittedly wrong and without excuse, the Department of Justice’s heavy-handed response to my misconduct was certainly a product of the scrutiny brought about by a fervent political climate and not by the gravity of my misconduct,” Saucier wrote in a White House petition.
Saucier pleaded guilty to charges relating to six pictures he took with his personal cell phone of classified spaces within the attack submarine Alexandria. Saucier claims that two other sailors on the submarine were punished for the same crime in 2011, but received much less harsh of a punishment than he did in 2015 surrounding the Clinton scandal.
“Indeed, if not for the high level of the Clinton misconduct and the lengthy presidential campaign process, there can be no doubt that my far less egregious acts of taking six photos of my work station would have otherwise been received with a significantly lower form of punishment,” he continued.
Jeffrey Addicott, Saucier’s attorney, said he hopes President-elect Trump will be able to pardon him when he takes office.
“The reason this case cries out for clemency and pardon is just the gross injustice,” Addicott said. “This is a matter of justice and justice isn’t just about whether you are guilty or not — he’s admitted that. It’s about the punishment as well.”
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